Plant of the Month

Plant of the Month: April 2022

Chinese Ground-Orchid

Bletilla striata (Th.) Rchb. fil.

= Bletilla hyacinthina (Sm.) Rchb. fil.

= Bletia hyacinthina (Sm.) Ait.

ORCHIDACEÆ; Orchid Family

Genus Bletilla consists of 5 spp. of terrestrial orchids of temperate E Asia, N Burma and Indochina through China to Japan. The flowers are bee-pollinated. These orchids are joyfully easy to grow outside in temperate climates. Few houseplant books mention Bletilla, advising a cool, bright room, porch or deck. The species featured in this article is the only one grown much or reported edible. It is a no-frills orchid not as extravagant-looking as its close relatives: Cœlogyne, Dendrochilum, and Pleïone. Other names for the common Bletilla are Hardy Orchid, Hyacinth Orchid, Amethyst Orchid, Urn Orchid, Peacock Orchid.

It is native in E Tibet, China, Burma, Korea, and Japan. It is well known, and easily grown outside. Cultivars and hybrids exist. Its bulblike underground pseudobulbs make extensive patches. It grows to 30 inches high. The leaves recall corn leaves: slender, curved, ribbed markedly; to 18 inches long by 3 inches wide, and coloring yellowish-brown in autumn. There are 3 - 12 (20) flowers per stem. Flowers are rosy purple, pink or white, to 2.5 inches wide.

This plant is much used in herbal medicine. It is reported edible sparingly: in Sandu County of Guizhou, S China, a liquor is made from it. In the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi, central China, the mucilaginous, bitter bulbs are eaten. In NW Yunnan, China, the bulbs are stewed with chicken or pork. The Chuangqing People in China steam the roots with honey and eat them to treat coughs and tuberculosis. To me, the bulbs resemble snails, have an eye-wincingly bitter skin, and chewing the pulp raw is an unpleasant, sticky endeavor, leaving the mouth in a state difficult to cleanse.

Back